Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1910 — AMERICAN INFLUENCE ABROAD. [ARTICLE]

AMERICAN INFLUENCE ABROAD.

Affects Commercial and Amusement Activities and Also Legislation. It is self-evident that from Canada’s elose proximity to the United States and the absence of natural barriers on her southern frontiers the Americanizing of the Dominion should beia palpable fact, but it is worthy of notice that a like process is going on, in spite of the intervening ocean, in Australia also, says the Preusslche Jahrbuch. . Witness the large as well as the smaller incidents of public life. The decrees of the law courts were more frequently founded upon the American than upon British precedents. In clothing and in eating the custom and fashion of America became more and more prevalent. In the theaters and music halls three-fourths of the performers were Americans. The booksellers displayed many more American than English publications. The Australian merchants and exporters looked to America as the headquarters of the world’s commerce. The Americanizing of Australian legislation soon followed, and those who drew up the Australian constitution looked to the United States for a model. Their commonwealth is Indeed a second edition of the North American union. There is also a third section of the British world empire which is threatened with the danger of being Americanized. This is the British West Indies. The natives of these islands have, within the last twenty yean, learned to compare the enterprising spirit of the United States with the inertness of Great Britain. The occupation of Porto Rico, the institution of a protectorate over Cuba, the administration of the island and the undertaking of the Panama canal have excited their admiration. They found in the numberless American travelers who visited the Antilles, calling Jamaica the Riviera of North America, those who knit closer and closer the commercial and social ties that united the States and the English islands.